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Electroactive Polymers

7/28/2008

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Electroactive Polymers are polymers whose shape changes by an applied voltage. They can be used as actuators or sensors. Because of their similarity to biological tissues, they are often called artificial muscles and have potential in robotics where large linear movements are needed.
[Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroactive_polymers (7/28/2008)

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“Electroactive polymers convert between mechanical and electrical energy.”
Pei, Pelrine and Rosenthal. U.S. Patent 7,436,099 (October 14, 2008) (11/23/2008)

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Electroactive polymers include
Dielectric electroactive polymers are based on squeezing caused by electrostatic forces between two electrodes. This requires a large actuation voltage (several thousand volts) with very low power consumption and require no power to keep the actuator at a given position. Examples are electrostrictive polymers and dielectric elastomers .
Ionic electroactive polymers are based on the displacement of ions inside the polymer. Only a few volts are needed for actuation, but the ionic flow implies a higher electrical power needed for actuation, and energy is needed to keep the actuator at a given position. Examples of ionic EAPS are conductive polymers, ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs), and responsive gels. Yet another example is a Bucky gel actuator, which is a polymer-supported layer of polyelectrolyte material consisting of an ionic liquid sandwiched between two electrode layers consisting of a gel of ionic liquid containing single-wall carbon nanotubes.
[Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroactive_polymers (7/28/2008)]